lasting memorial, and--to please the
commonalty--a gorgeous procession and an ox roasted whole, with gilded
horns and ribbons,--the huge carcase turned like a hare on a gigantic
spit by help of a steam-engine before a furnace of two tons of blazing
coal; and that ox was consumed after a most barbaric Abyssinian fashion
in the open air. My Anglo-Saxon Magazine came out strong on the
occasion,--but it is obsolete now; and I care not to use up space in
reprinting patriotic indignation: for let me state that, considered as a
national commemoration of the Great King, the chief founder of our
liberties, this Wantage jubilee was all but a failure; the British lion
slumbered, and it was flogging a dead horse to try to wake him up; very
few of the magnates responded to our appeal: but we did our best,
nevertheless, as independent Englishmen, and locally achieved a fair
success.

If I went into the whole story with anecdotical detail, I should weary
my reader: let me only reproduce my song at the grand Liverpool banquet,
by way of ending cheerily.

_The Day of a Thousand Years._

"To-day is the day of a thousand years!
Bless it, O brothers, with heart-thrilling cheers!
Alfred for ever!--to-day was He born,
Day-star of England, to herald her morn,
That, everywhere breaking and brightening soon,
Sheds on us now the full sunshine of noon,
And fills us with blessing in Church and in State,
Children of Alfred, the Good and the Great!
_Chorus_--Hail to his Jubilee Day,
The Day of a thousand years.

"Anglo-Saxons!--in love are we met,
To honour a Name we can never forget!
Father, and Founder, and King of a race
That reigns and rejoices in every place,--
Root of a tree that o'ershadows the earth,
First of a Family blest from his birth,
Blest in this stem of their strength and their state,
Alfred the Wise, and the Good, and the Great!
_Chorus_,--Hail to his Jubilee Day,
The Day of a thousand years!

"Children of Alfred, from every clime
Your glory shall live to the deathday of Time!
Hereafter in bliss still ever expand
O'er measureless realms of the Heavenly Land!
For you, like him, serve God and your Race,
And gratefully look on the birthday of Grace:
Then honour to Alfred! with heart-stirring cheers!
To-day is the Day of a thousand years!
_Chorus_,--Hail to hi